which is found in fairy tales as a primitive poetic production, and again in the dream and in psychopathology.
Now certainly the scientific method in the psychological exploration of fairy tales is circumscribed by the investigation of dreams and of psychotic structures. Here, through many experiments, one can follow the sources and association paths which the elements in the formation of the dream story or the delusional structure have supplied. One can compel the psyche, through such wider information, to affirm or deny its meaning. The creator of these fairy stories in his traditional form is dead or unknown to us. We have, therefore, on the one hand, to refer to the comparison of existing documents in order to get at the correct interpretation; on the other hand, however, the human psyche in the dream and in conditions in which the unconscious is especially active, and also in abnormal psychic activity, is always still a fairy poetess, and a continued comparison of these products with the fairy tales permits us to draw the most valuable conclusions.
It is surprising how great a role the sexual plays in fairy tales and how great is the agreement of the sexual symbolism with that of dreams and psychopathology. When one realizes and admits, however, that the sexuality, besides hunger and the social factors, plays a leading role in life and constantly influences our thoughts and actions from youth up (for the sexuality develops, like everything else, from an infantile form to a full, many sided structure) then it does not appear in any way surprising, although the fairy tales appear to us in a new, less childlike garb. They lose on that account nothing of their charm and power of attraction.
